Selected Work
The founders I work with rarely fit a conventional mold. They're independent thinkers, explorers, and creators with restless minds, unconventional interests, and ambitions that defy easy categorization. What they share is a desire to build something personally meaningful without sacrificing the originality and conviction behind it.
From Boardroom Regular to Entertainment Insider
After a twenty-five-year career on Wall Street, a distinguished executive set his sights on a new chapter in the music industry. But entering this unfamiliar world meant more than establishing professional credibility; it required a different way of seeing and presenting himself. We immersed ourselves in its personalities, cultural codes, and expectations, discovering that qualities taken for granted in finance were in short supply and highly prized in entertainment. We translated those insights into the positioning, name, and identity of his artist management company, while helping him develop a personal style that felt both authentic to him and at home in his new milieu. The company represents internationally recognized musical talent to this day.
From Friendly Sounding Board to Executive Power Player
Ready to embark on a portfolio career, a successful BCG consultant envisioned turning her informal role as a sounding board for startup founders in her social circle into a coaching practice. But exploring the expectations of that market alongside her own history, strengths, and personal style revealed a tension: her polish, diplomacy, and firm professional boundaries were at odds with a startup culture that prized informality and constant availability. Those same qualities, however, were powerful assets for ambitious professionals navigating the unspoken politics of advancement in large, complex organizations. We built her positioning and narrative around that insight, and the foundation for a thriving international coaching practice commanding premium fees.
From Independent Thinker
to Visionary Entrepreneur
An independent researcher with an unconventional discovery aspired to establish herself as a serious intellectual authority. But a closer look at her ambitions, background, and reputation revealed a more credible, and potentially more influential, identity: an entrepreneur and philanthropist bringing original ideas and offerings into the world. We clarified the central claim behind her research, assessed a lifetime of commercial, creative, and intellectual projects, and prioritized those that could establish immediate credibility and momentum. We also mapped the commercial possibilities for her discovery, developed distinct propositions for different audiences, and built the ventures through which her ideas could reach the world.
From Brilliant Builder
to Founder on a Mission
A Stanford-educated computer scientist left his job at Google with a seemingly endless supply of ideas, seeking help developing potential ventures and deciding which deserved to become a business. One concept stood out as especially promising, but its original model demanded a highly visible, socially performative founder. As we explored the values he wanted his work to reflect and the legacy he hoped to build, a fundamental tension emerged between the opportunity's demands and his own temperament and convictions. Rather than reshape the man to fit the opportunity, we reimagined the venture around his strengths and aspirations, refining its mission and audience and identifying the complementary leadership he'd need to build something he could fully put himself into.
From Accomplished Operator
to Audacious Inventor
An Ivy League-educated scientist and deeptech founder was considering how to bring his expertise to a wider range of companies and ventures as part of his next chapter. Yet he defined himself primarily through his accomplishments as a CEO: hard-won credentials, but hardly unusual among experienced founders, and far from the most interesting thing about him. As we got to know him beyond his professional achievements, exploring his personality, ambitions, and the worlds he hoped to enter, a more distinctive identity emerged: a scientist, inventor, and maverick consistently drawn to technical challenges others deemed too difficult, with published research, patented technology, and commercial ventures to back it up. What he'd come to take for granted about himself was precisely what set him apart. We helped him reconsider how he presented his experience and, more importantly, what he believed was most remarkable about it.
From Jack of All Trades
to Specialist by Design
After a successful corporate career in Europe, a rising star stepped away to move countries, get a law degree, and raise children. Now preparing to establish herself in the U.S., she faced an unfamiliar challenge. Back home, she'd earned a reputation as someone who could handle almost anything, taking on high-profile assignments across a wide range of functions. But without that reputation to precede her, how could she establish herself in a profession she'd only recently trained for?
As we got to know her, a pattern emerged: crisis and reputation management ran through much of her career — and what’s more, reflected the same forthright, contrarian disposition that friends and family knew her for. We reframed her experience and developed multiple scenarios for entering the market, helping her weigh her options and embrace a professional identity that felt less like a role to perform and more like an extension of who she already was.
From Industrial Heir to Market Maker
A former BCG consultant raised in a prominent Latin American manufacturing family saw an opportunity to build a business connecting manufacturers across borders. But establishing an enterprise of his own meant convincing investors and prospective team members that his vision was scalable — and that he brought more to the table than family connections. Looking beyond his impressive résumé, we brought into focus what made him uniquely suited to succeed: a childhood fascination with machines that had never left him, a love of getting his hands dirty, and an unusual ease with people from all walks of life, from factory owners to the warehouse operators who would become his first customers. Rather than fitting him into a conventional founder mold, we built around his strengths, developing a distinctive leadership story, and identifying the customers who could validate the opportunity and people whose skills complemented his own. The venture quickly secured its first customers and grew into an enduring enterprise that has extended into broader portfolio of ventures under his leadership.
Selected Corporate Experience
I've spent much of my career advising major organizations through leading creative firms, including Interbrand, Fifty Thousand Feet, Yonder Consulting, and Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR). With an emphasis on corporate identity & transformation, that work has included positioning, brand and portfolio architecture, employer branding, naming, messaging, and organizational culture change.
A sampling of the organizations I’ve advised:
Adobe
AMD
Bally Corporation
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Brookfield
GardaWorld
Hyundai
Moody's
National Instruments
Northern Trust
Oriental Bank
Prudential Financial
Sullivan & Cromwell
Thomson Reuters
Truist Financial
Verizon
Walmart
Winston Artory Group
Yahoo